The inclusion of Let the Right One In might surprise some people --and if you haven't seen the film which comes to DVD in March, you might want to skip this paragraph (spoilers). Most people who love the film seem to prefer to think of it as a clever coming of age story wrapped up in vampiric darkness. Eli the girlboysomething with a taste for blood has invited a lot of sympathy in movie lovers and in her child friend, the bullied Oskar. She doesn't scream "I'm evil!" to everyone. But sympathy for the devil tends to be the most valuable tool in the monstrous arsenal. This is how most vampires suck people in (no pun intended) until it's far too late. I think Låt den Rätte Komma In is much much scarier if you divorce yourself from compassion and really consider what its ending projects for the young friends. To some degree the last 20 minutes or so play like typical movie wish fulfillment / 'revenge is sweet' happy ending. But in the not too distant future won't Oskar be bleeding teenage boys to death in the forest to feed his precious Eli, just like his predecessor, until he's old and grey?

Now, that is scary. Little abused Oskar as a serial killing Swedish Renfield. That's not a happy ending at all.

I read the film the same way as you, Nat, but that's what I love about it - that it can play either way and is so deceptive in its true intent. Just like Eli! It's a terrifically depressing film about soulless people finding their soulless-mate.

That was certainly my interpretation of the ending of "Let the Right One In" as well. But I think it is interesting to note our reading was not the intention of the author.

In the novel, Eli's previous caretaker was a pedophile (they met when he was already middle-aged), and their relationship was purely symbiotic in nature (Eli provides "company" while he provides blood). Eli's relationship with Oskar, however, is not. It is very much based in love (Eli strives throughout the story to pretend to be "normal", not out of deception), and the novel even suggests at the end how Eli can continue to survive without Oskar's doing.

But I agree, whether intentional or not, the movie is more effective precisely because it is left open to interpretation. And regardless, the fact remains that Oskar is bound by age, and his relationship with Eli is still ultimately doomed.

yeah, as someone else pointed out that interpretation of Let The Right One In isn't what is intended from the novel...and while I do agree there is enough there in the film version to come to that ending I don't think it was changed to "lock down" that Eli=Hakan future...I think it was just to give the viewer some more room to use their imagination. The film is very faithful to the novel on the whole, but there are little details and backstory left out to intentionally allow things in the film to be ambiguous that really aren't that way in the novel.

Ya, I came in here to point out what bubba already said. And frankly, at his age, Oscar wouldn't even be capable of doing for Eli what the old guy did, she isn't bringing him along as a helper but out of genuine compassion.

She'd only been with her newest for a short while. Which should be obvious from the fact that he's so inept at his killings. If he'd been doing this for 40 years, he'd be a heck of a lot better at it or he wouldn't still be free to do it.

Wow LTROI fans would bleed you dry if they saw Eli included as a villain.

But yeah, the movie's great because of the moral ambiguity and the different layers of interpretations available for the ending.

1st ->Love story w/ vampires (happy)2nd ->Vampire manipulating kid (horrifying)the 3rd and the one most fans agree is3rd ->tragic ending. Eli truly loves Oskar but will do the responsible thing and push him away after a few happy years so he doesn't have to suffer the fate of her previous caretaker.

The 2nd interpretation has its appeal because in that scenario instead of a doomed relationship where both characters long for the impossible, at least Eli is happy.

To be fair, in the movie Eli doesn't ask anything of Oskar except for his acceptance...